Worse Fates
by Jammcakes
Summary: A gravedigger and a thug from the Underground have a unique arrangement worked out. [Canon-verse with altercations; Erwin/Levi; M/M;]


For the most part, the rain had been a boon. Light drizzles did the work of a pickax on some of the more stubborn areas of dirt without being too much of a bother. It meant Erwin's boots worked ankle deep in mud, but that was negligible. Gravediggers wore brown boots because their occupation put them in the ground. Erwin wondered if that was why the soldiers wore brown as well.

He shoveled out another pile out and then ran a hand down the side of his slacks. Nearly four feet of displaced wet, black sod had swelled up impressively at his side, but Erwin's eyes lingered on the humble coffin next to it. The man lying within it had been a soldier. His body—or what was left of it—now rested in his uniform beneath the folds of his scouting expedition cloak: green as the grass that would someday crop up and grow over him. In that manner, the Scouts prepared bodies for the inevitable better than any embalmer ever could.

A grumble of thunder pulled Erwin's attention up at the sky. Lightning slithered a violet outline behind the distant Wall Maria. The Garrison's evening watch was starting their patrol, their torchlight making them look like ants carrying crumbs along the top of the massive structure. If the Wallists were to be believed, the long white arms of the goddesses were the only thing keeping them protected from absolute annihilation. Even though Erwin had never seen a Titan, he found no solace looking at the Walls. From the angle he worked, they looked no different than the surrounding headstones. He blinked when a drop splashed the bridge of his nose and rolled down his cheek. Thunder growled again, more urgently this time, as he wiped his face with the white towel he kept wrapped around his neck.

The sound of horse hooves came so gently over the pavement, that Erwin almost mistook the beast's steps for the sound of rain. He reached for where his lantern flickered above him on the makeshift scaffold and held it up. Enthralled gnats followed the movement like smoke, and through them, Erwin saw the rider swing a leg out from his mount over a section of the cemetery's high pointed gate. He straddled the fence for a moment, and then hauled a large sack from the back of his horse over before dropping down alongside it.

Erwin heard the audible squelch of the man's impact on the ground, and the even more audible curse that followed it. The figure disappeared completely, and then shot up on his feet. A bag nearly twice his size was slung comfortably across his shoulders, moving with ease as the man continued to weave and hop over tombstones. Hot little curses spilled from his mouth with every step and squish. Erwin bit back a chuckle.

"I must confess, I didn't think I would see you tonight," he called, once the man was in earshot.

The figure stilled for a moment, and then Erwin tilted his lantern forward as if to invite him towards the light. He took it and approached.

"Why?" the man asked, dropping his burden at the lip of the unfinished grave. "People don't stop dying just because of a little rain." He stretched back his shoulders, and Erwin could see where strands of damp hair had stitched along the gaunt cheeks beneath his hood. "I thought a man of your profession would know that by now."

Erwin set the lantern at his feet and steadied his shovel in the ground. He leaned in to rest his chin and hands over the wooden base. "Of course," he replied, looking back up the grey eyes that loomed over him, natural as the overcast sky. "Enough to know that the weather has very little to do with a person's fate when it comes to a man of your profession," he grinned.

"Ah," the man said, shaking a single pale finger down at him before bringing it back up to his own lips, "that kind of talk borderlines on breaching our little agreement, Erwin."

He nudged the sack with the toe of his boot, and sent it tumbling down lopsided into the hole. It landed short of the light of Erwin's lamp, and the gravedigger told himself that the stains dotting the burlap were only from the rain and mud. "You're right," Erwin agreed, as he dislodged the shovel and set it on the adjacent grass. He stooped to grab the light, and then pulled himself out of the grave and away from the bag. "Forgive me, Levi."

A twinge of a smile twisted the corner of Levi's mouth, but even then, the chill of the rain redeemed very little of his face's pallor. Compared to the ghost-like skin that stretched over the man's petite frame, Erwin had seen corpses with healthier complexions. Yet, the muscles that tensed beneath the shaggy cloak held a confidence that was very much alive as he moved towards the gravedigger. "At least your friend here will have some company," he said nodding to the coffin. "Mister…"

"Moses," Erwin answered, removing the coat he had draped over it to soak up as much water as he could. He bent to lift the head of the casket and its weight came up surprisingly easy, even for a man whose whole body was not present. He looked up and saw that Levi had picked up the base with him. He nodded curtly, and helped guide the coffin when Erwin stepped backwards into the grave to lay it finally to rest. "Appreciate it," Erwin added, not looking at the muddied bundle curled next to Moses.

Levi scoffed. "Don't mention it," he said. He pushed a few strands of wet hair out of his eyes, and then returned his hands under the warmth of his cloak. He looked down into the grave. "I mean that, too: mention none of this."

Erwin hoped the thunder muted the discomfort in his laugh as he set to work filling the ground. Heap by heap, more and more of Moses and his new companion disappeared beneath the displaced sod. On the opposite side of the grave, he could feel Levi watching him work, eyes following the lines of his arms and back with an intense fascination as though it was gold dripping from the shovel's head. It had been strange during their first few meetings. Erwin had joked several times in asking if the man felt like offering him a hand, but Levi always replied with the same flat response of "No, I'm quite content just watching you." Erwin didn't ask anymore.

It was, however, strange that Levi loitered on a night with less than favorable weather conditions to his liking; that he would continue to choose to endure the mud and mouths of biting insects after his drop off was complete. Even Erwin found that having to dab the mixture and sweat and rain off of his nape every couple of shovels was inefficient as it was irritating. "So…" he said, after drying his neck off again, "are you…here to pay your respects?"

Levi's head turned slowly beneath his hood, his narrow eyes widening owl-like. "You're shitting me, right?" he said, pitch barely above a whisper. Erwin's bottom lip hung open for a second too long and Levi pointed his shoulders stiffly. "It's the third Thursday of the month," he said, mud licking his heels as he rounded over to the gravedigger's side. He pulled out a small vial from beneath his cloak and held it up in front of Erwin. "You know—'Payday?' "

He pressed the bottle into the gravedigger's open palm, and Erwin's fingers boiled hot as they closed around it. The fine hairs at his neck were drenched again. "Ah yes," he said, tucking the payment into his shirt pocket. "Thank you. I'm terribly sorry, I must've forgotten."

"You 'forg-'…oh fuck you!" Levi swore, kicking the ground so that mud splattered over Erwin's already browned boots. He immediately hissed in regret when it recoiled onto his own. Erwin knew better than to laugh, and instead dipped his head apologetically to hide his smile.

"I am terribly sorry," he repeated just as a ribbon of lightning twisted directly above them. Erwin flipped his shovel to shoulder it. "We should probably head inside as soon as possible anyway," he added, scooping up the lantern from below a cloud of gnats.

Levi nodded. "Lead on, then," he said, following two muddy steps behind.

They crossed over rows of most markers without difficulty. Erwin's size permitted him to step over the majority of headstones, but even Levi was able to keep up with little hops and leaps, or simply by sidling between. None of the graves were particularly imposing, though: no marble cuts featuring the goddesses' faces or even the impressive mausoleums that dotted the yards in the interior. Most were, in fact, stones that the elements had withered and just happened to have the faint names of the deceased with little to no ornamentation at all.

Several, however, bore small visitation markers that Erwin was always mindful of. Occasionally, they would change course when the lamp light would reveal a line of pebbles anchoring down small feathers that the rain had shriveled and barbed. They had been delicately placed there earlier by family, friends, and fellow-

"Soldiers," Erwin heard Levi say with a quiet, unexpected reverence behind him. "These are all soldiers then."

"Most of them are," their gravedigger confirmed.

"Scouts?"

"I would imagine so," Erwin shrugged, eyes following the rise of the massive Wall. "Can't think who else would be dying."

The half-hearted laugh from the back of his companion's throat prompted Erwin to look over his shoulder. Levi's attention was on the crumb-like movements of the distant patrols. "Shit, I've heard that the Garrison's had guys who get so drunk off their asses, they just fall off the Wall."

Erwin coughed to cover his laugh. "Well, that is…quite a way to go out."

"That's what I mean, right?" Levi said. He passed over another unmarked headstone. "What a life."

Erwin nodded as thunder purred over them. "What a life, indeed," he repeated.

They were silent for a while. The only sounds between them were the plucking of their feet through the damp earth, until they at last came to the gravel path that led up to a small hovel at the top of the hill. The crown had allowed, even encouraged groundskeepers to live on the land they curated. It permitted them the ease of tending to their duties, while keeping an ironic watchful eye out for intruders; but it hadn't slipped Erwin's notice that the government's generosity also conveniently kept his ilk from the rest of the populace. Though, in this weather—and in this company— even the renovated shed looked as appetizing as any palace room.

"We could probably do it too, you know?" rolled Levi's voice over the scratch of the gravel beneath him. His heels grinded sluggishly behind, determined to work off as much of the muck as he could manage. "Be soldiers, I mean," he clarified when he noticed Erwin's squint.

Erwin made no effort to mask his laugh this time. "Don't you think that you and I send enough people to their graves already?" he asked, tugging up the string that secured his house key around his neck.

"Exactly," Levi replied, shrinking down further as he removed the first of his boots. "We're already good at it." He deposited the second next to its mate outside, and stepped quickly underneath Erwin's arm once the entrance swung open to the home's dim interior.

The door shut behind them, and Erwin retired the exhausted flame of his lantern after lighting the wall lamps. "Maybe we would make decent soldiers," he said, turning after shaking out the match, "but the Titans—"

Levi's hands were ice against the wet of Erwin's cheekbones, and the gravedigger could feel every ghostly muscle thrumming from the palms of his hands down to the tips of the toes that strained for him to reach the larger man's lips. The kiss had come eager; warm, despite the chill running over both of their skins and wet clothes. Tongue that wasn't his own, prodded against Erwin's teeth. His hands hovered over Levi's waist just as the man pulled his mouth away and spat.

"Gross," he winced, wiping his wrist across the black dribble hanging from the corner of his bottom lip. His hood had fallen back neatly to his shoulders, revealing neck muscles taut in disgust. "You taste like shit."

Erwin didn't need a looking glass to know Levi was right. He was used to the haggard appearance he saw in his reflection at the end of the work day; used to the feeling of dirt hardening over his body and clothes like a second skin.

"I should go clean up then," he said, giving the slender hip a squeeze before Levi pulled completely away.

"Do that," he said, rolling his own wet cloak up over his head. "Just because you're a dirty old man doesn't mean you should look like one," he added and tossed the soaked bundle at Erwin, who caught it easily.

The smile the gravedigger returned was genuine as he opened the door to the water closet. "There are some fresh towels on the desk for you."

"Sure."

Levi took up Erwin's offer once he heard the door click shut. He snapped up the white towel folded over the desk chair, and proceeded to dry off. Not much had changed in his surroundings since his prior visits: the cast iron stove sat cheerful, but alone in a corner, far from the cascade of books that tumbled well off their shelf into haphazard little piles. He dug the towel deep through the thick of his black hair, and tried to think of what would require a gravedigger to do so much reading. Levi wasn't an idiot—he hadn't survived this long without knowing how to size up marks, and he knew that there was something that didn't quite add up about this well-read, impossibly polite man sentenced to tend corpses. His fingers glazed over the dark arch of the desk chair. It was worn, but finely crafted down to the hand carved roses that made up its back: the kind of detail he had seen only in the Studies of estates he'd broken into. Though the man himself had given Levi no reason to suspect him, there was no doubt that Erwin Smith had quite a few buried secrets of his own.

His eyes narrowed down at the papers scattered on the desk. It didn't matter if Erwin was hiding something from Levi, and he wasn't exactly in the position to demand him to be forthcoming. Yet, the thought bothered him— strictly, because any lax oversight could cost him his head. That was the only reason why he was flipping through the loose documentations of funeral arrangements and maps of open burial plots for some insight on this contradiction of a man.

The hanging calendar proved to be no help as well. The inked notes scrawled out in Erwin's shorthand might as well have been written in another language. The only thing that did stand out otherwise had been that today's date was the only one that was circled. Curious, Levi thumbed over to the next sheet, and found that the page was empty aside for one circled date: the third Thursday of that month.

"Forgot," he scoffed, glaring over his shoulder at the door concealing the water closet. "Such a fuckin' liar…"

Levi abandoned his search and sank down into the single cot tucked against the wall. Soaked and tired muscles rejoiced at the opportunity to rest, and he leaned flat on his back to indulge them. Even the irritation of the mattress' lumps seemed to be a charming feature now, but perhaps that was just because the sheets bunched between his fingers smelled so intoxicatingly fresh today. He tried not to feel flattered at such an obvious coincidence, though the single browning rose left on the nightstand was a particularly convincing touch. Levi cupped it against his chest by its base and inhaled. "God, we're both such fucking liars," he mumbled.

He shut his eyes when he heard the door latch snap, cheating through a half closed lid once he heard footsteps and the accompanying laughter.

"Well, well…what happened here?" he heard the gravedigger say.

"I died," Levi said as he felt the addition of the man's weight on the bed. "You took so long that I actually died waiting for you to fuck me."

The springs creaked below and Levi sensed the space grow smaller around him with the heat of an arm or hand flat along his sides. "Is that so?" Erwin's voice hung right over his chest, "Shame."

Levi's eyes pinched tighter. His body shrank deeper into the sheets as their noses brushed once Erwin's arms slipped beneath his back and waist.

"Lucky you, though," Erwin whispered against his ear, "there's a place outside perfect for a handsome corpse such as yourself."

Levi's grey eyes snapped open. "What're you—?"

The words fell out of him as Erwin stood and scooped him over his shoulder in a single, fluid motion. With a slight growl, Levi locked his feet around the small of the larger man's back, and twisted himself with equivalent grace free so that he could see where the blonde hair was still damp with clean droplets of water just before Erwin cupped his face and kissed him.

Erwin tasted fresh now; the sting of mint still hovered at the roof his mouth, which Levi was more than eager to inhale during the breaths between their quick kisses. Levi squeezed his heels harder into Erwin's back and was pleased when the moan he earned also granted his tongue deeper access to the insides of cheeks and teeth. Fingers wandered through the grain of Erwin's hair, intent on twisting the fine locks so that he could taste each groan trapped in the gravedigger's throat. A warm palm cupped him between the legs and his mouth fell back in a gasp.

"Rising from the dead," Erwin mused with two slow strokes against the cock firming beneath his touch. His blue eyes fell soft, half-lidded like Levi's own. "It's a miracle," he breathed.

"Fuck. You," Levi rasped. He moved to kiss him again, only to have Erwin's free hand push his lips back with two fingers.

"Tell me about your day," the gravedigger said.

Levi frowned. "You're going to pull this shit again?" he huffed, "When you know that I can't? When this is not in our agreement, Erwin?"

"What is our agreement then, Levi?" Erwin asked, sounding infuriatingly innocent as he kissed the forehead skin peeking out behind black bangs.

He pulled his head away from Erwin's touch. "I thought that the deal was that I keep your lips shut about what you see with my own."

"Exactly," Erwin said, dodging Levi's second attempt to kiss him. He lowered him so he sat at the edge of the bed and knelt before him on the floor. "So start using them," he said, unwrapping one of the legs snug around his waist to push the muddied hem of the fabric up, "talk to me."

Levi snorted with an irritated kick of his knee. He scowled down at the man holding his feet; his burgundy shirt was unbuttoned all the way down, and hung parted over a clean white undershirt. The first few times, Levi had chalked up the gravedigger's insistence for idle conversation to loneliness, possibly nerves: a man of his caste wasn't exactly the most desirable of social company. Levi detested this useless banter, but had assumed that the man would grow bored of him eventually, and skip directly to more carnal requests. His toes curled as Erwin started to massage his heel. All things considered, he had no place to complain.

"What do you want to know about my day?" he asked as Erwin kissed the top of his foot.

"Everything," he murmured.

"Shit, let's see…" Levi considered, leaning his hands back on the bed behind him. "Today…I woke up in a king-sized bed in the nicest mansion in Sina to the smell of my wife cooking breakfast downstairs."

Erwin curved a finger over the smile of his arch. "Is that so? What was she making?"

He bit his bottom lip. "Bacon," he grinned. "Thick slabs of bacon with just a little bit of honey drizzled over it. There was warm bread, too. Soft cheeses, black tea…"

"Sounds delicious."

"It was," he managed, as Erwin pressed kisses from his ankle up to his calf, "fuck, it was."

"Lovely," Erwin whispered, his hands pausing behind Levi's knee. "What happened next?"

There was low laugh in Levi's gut. "My dog brought me my slippers," he said, "and birds dressed me in my finest garments."

"Birds?"

"Yeah. Little blue song birds," Levi grunted once the man's hands landed on the side of each thigh. "Sometimes they sing me off to work, too."

His legs hooked naturally over the valley of the gravedigger's shoulders. "I see. And where is it you work?" Erwin asked while he slid a hand down the front of the other man's trousers.

Levi's cock jerked at the fingertips that were twirling lazily against it. "I…" he hissed, tossing his head back to mask the heat he knew had to be crawling across his cheekbones. The rhythm brushing him continued drumming; expectant, waiting for an answer. His grey eyes scoured over Erwin, and then stopped where the tableside rose had landed next to the gravedigger on the floor. "Ah…a flower shop," he gulped. "I work at a flower shop."

The words were magic, a command that Erwin's hand answered by tightening around his erection, and pulled him free from the confines of his smallclothes. "How charming," Erwin complimented, thumb stroking Levi's slit. "How's business?"

"It's…good"

"Only good?"

"Could be…better," he answered as tongue folded below his cock's head. Erwin's lips felt earnest, but always much too cautious whenever he took him in; a slow inching down his length while strong, large fingers kneaded into Levi's thighs for balance. Levi's scoff was near breathless. At least the man had moved past apologizing every time he slipped or bumped him against the sides of his teeth. He raked a hand through Erwin's hair, "Much better."

The pleased hum Erwin responded with turned the splayed fingers into a fist that clutched against his fair scalp. Pale heels crossed at Erwin's back dug into his spine while hips worked deeper into the gravedigger's mouth, pushing closer to—

Erwin withdrew all too suddenly, his hot gulps for air now painful against the slick shaft below him, and Levi made sure to tangle his hand harder into his hair to let him know.

"I'm sorry," Erwin panted, placing a hand over one of Levi's flushed calves and kissing the tremor that coursed through it. He started to stand without looking at the man; slowly, to allow the legs wrapped around him to slope gently to the floor. "We don't have to continue—"

He stopped when he felt a hand far smaller than his own dig into his shirt pocket.

"You know, gravedigger, I was kidding earlier," Levi said, a strained calm nipping at his words, "but it would be nice to get off sometime before I get old and die." He pulled out the small vial from the man's pocket and presented it to him again. "So, anytime you feel like using this—and this," he added, palming the bulge in the gravedigger's beige slacks, "do so."

His breath passed through his teeth in tiny hisses, eyes narrowed up at Erwin's widening blues; and Levi's jaw slacked at the reminder that this man was not his lover. He was a liability, albeit a profitable one, but one he could not afford on his life to piss off. Color mixed from arousal and embarrassment puckered his skin, and he began to retract his hand just as Erwin gripped it. Without taking his eyes off Levi, Erwin rolled the small bottle into his palm, and shrugged out of his open shirt. It curled itself into a neat heap, covering where the rose fell.

"Levi," Erwin said evenly, "tell me what you want out of this."

"What I want...?" His cock gave a little twitch at the sight of the vial rolling between Erwin's thumb and forefinger. "Like I've said, my goal is to keep your mouth shut about the shit you see out there."

"Is that all?"

"I want…" he repeated, testing the word on his tongue, as well as the man's reaction, "I want you to stop this cordial bullshit you do…"

Erwin nodded at him. There was more, though, and Levi could see on the man's face that he knew it too.

"…And I want…us," Levi confessed, and watched the creases in the gravedigger's skin smooth over his entire face. "I want us to stop lying to each other, at least about…this."

He offered no other clarity than that, but Erwin nodded again. "I agree," he said softly and pushed him flat against the mattress.

Levi's short laugh surprised even him when a moment later Erwin's weight joined his own on the small cot. There was no teasing or toying from the hands that worked through the buttons on Levi's shirt and vest, no hesitation from the arms that flipped him over on his stomach, or from the two fingers that swiped down his shaft. The remainder of his trousers peeled off over the tension bundling in his abdomen and he parted his knees.

"I'm not…" Levi warned softly, "going to be able to last long."

"It's fine," Erwin replied, his voice thick. He shunted Levi back as if to convince him of his own trapped heat under his slacks. "You won't need to."

The pop of the vial's stopper was the prettiest sound Levi's throbbing ears could've heard. He controlled his shiver as the chill of the ointment curled down between his cheeks and dribbled over the curve of his sack; held a breath in when the pressure of Erwin's fingers started preparing him.

"This…flower business of yours," Erwin asked, not being able to tell if the groan Levi followed with came from the nuisance of having to fake another conversation or from the addition of the third finger stretching him wider. "What would happen if you were…'discovered'?"

"Hah…" Black bangs fell forward over the fresh smelling sheet after Erwin removed himself. From behind, Levi heard the chime of a belt swiftly unbuckling, and the knock of it when it fell to the floor. "You better fucking hope we don't get 'discovered,' " he said. He reversed his position with one arm so that he faced Erwin just as the man was rolling his undershirt up over his head. Solid lines of muscle from working the earth were present all the way down to his abdomen, where coarse near-brown hair added an additional flourish right above his erection. Levi's gaze traveled up the man's body and thought how it must be some kind of goddamn joke that a gravedigger's caste was among the untouchables; that disgust over the necessity of what his occupation entailed prevented so many from knowing him like this. The thought made him harder.

But there was no mistaking from the telling strain in Erwin's lower jaw, and from the precum shining the tip of his cock, that he was close as well. He bent forward, and Levi draped his arms around his neck. They worked together in silent coordination until Levi comfortably straddled Erwin's lap; wordless, when Levi guided him inside and kissed the gravedigger's gasp as he moved against his full length.

"If we get caught," Levi breathed, rocking back from Erwin with a small nip at his lips, "don't think for one second that I won't squeal on you, either." He thrust himself closer against the other's chest as large hands folded around his waist to keep him there. He used the additional pressure to his advantage.

"I'll scream," Levi promised, despite the low voice leaning into Erwin's ear. "Oh, if they ask who is involved, I'll scream your name so goddamn loud, you'll hear it all the way from the gallows." He sighed as hands squeezed him with a small grunt. Their breathing was becoming more and more uneven together, and Levi's lids hung heavy over his eyes.

"They'll know," he choked out, sucking in through his teeth as his eyes slid shut, "God—they'll all know that I was...involved with…you—"

The arms holding him wrung the gravedigger's name from within him along with the rest of his release; Erwin's followed a heartbeat behind, tenderly repeating Levi's name where breaths should've been. The mess between them was disgusting and beautiful; needless and purposeful all at once. Too exhausted to mind it on his skin at the moment, Levi fell back onto the bed, pulling the warmth of Erwin's body with him. Despite his smaller frame, there was no way the two of them could sleep side-by-side, and adopted a more fitting approach that still pleasantly left them joined together.

Levi's forehead wrinkled as Erwin planted a slow kiss into the center of it. "Can you stay the night?" Erwin asked, burning a similar kiss into the back of Levi's hand.

He snorted. "No I can't. I have a butcher's daughter whose clit I have to lick scheduled right after you," he said, hating the stupid grin cutting across his lips when he felt the whole bed shake with Erwin's soft laugh. "I just go door to door fucking the town's casteless-"

Erwin snatched his lips again, as though he needed the persuasion. Held there, Levi forgot about the imaginary butcher's daughter, about the ever distant Titans scratching outside the Walls, and the two strangers they had forced to share the comfort of the same grave.

They stopped and the skin beneath Levi's sullen eyes felt heavier than his lids. "In all seriousness, though," he said once Erwin had rested his head beneath the sharp cut of his chin, "they'd hang us both if they found out about this." He swallowed. "They'd hang us, and then dump us both into a nameless grave. I'd like to avoid such a fate if we can."

The gravedigger hummed curiously, and raised his head enough to meet Levi's eyes in the withering candlelight. "Try not to worry too much about that," Erwin soothed, rolling his thumb down over Levi's lids so that they slid peacefully shut. "There are certainly worse fates than lying with you for the rest of eternity."

###


End file.
